The match was a do-or-die situation for Pakistan. If they lost to New Zealand, they would have been out of the World Cup. However, Fakhar Zaman’s outstanding century has given Pakistan a lifeline. On this path to a century, Fakhar Zaman has matched Shahid Afridi’s record, a record that stood for nearly three decades.
In Bangalore, Fakhar Zaman stepped up to the plate for Pakistan, scoring a remarkable 401 runs. Pakistan managed to score 200 runs while losing one wicket in 25.3 overs before the rain stopped play. In this innings, Fakhar scored 126 runs off just 81 balls, which included 12 fours and 8 sixes.
This innings by Fakhar Zaman has drawn parallels to Shahid Afridi’s iconic century against Sri Lanka in 1996, where he scored 102 runs off 37 balls, setting a record for the fastest century at that time. However, that record has since been broken. What’s unique about Afridi and Fakhar Zaman is that they share the record for hitting the most sixes in a single ODI inning for Pakistan, with 11 sixes each. Shahid Afridi couldn’t be reached for his reaction even after so many years.
After 27 years, today in Bangalore, Fakhar Zaman has equaled Shahid Afridi’s record of 11 sixes in a single ODI innings for Pakistan. This means that Afridi and Fakhar now jointly hold the record for the most sixes in a single ODI innings for Pakistan. Earlier, in 2021 in Johannesburg, Fakhar had smashed 193 runs against South Africa in 193 runs in just 24 innings, hitting 12 sixes.
Today, Fakhar’s innings has given Pakistan the upper hand before the rain stopped play. To win the match, Pakistan needed 21 more runs. At the end of the match, Babar praised Fakhar’s brilliant innings, saying, “I told Fakhar that if you can bat for 15 overs, we will be ahead. Our goal was to build partnerships, and I just asked Fakhar to strike. We knew the boundaries were small, and that’s what we utilized.”
With this remarkable innings of 11 sixes, Fakhar Zaman has not only equaled Shahid Afridi’s record, but he has also set another record of his own. Among Pakistan’s batsmen in the World Cup, he now holds the record for hitting the most sixes. In this World Cup, Fakhar has scored 21 sixes in 11 matches. Previously, the record for the most sixes by a Pakistani in a World Cup belonged to Imran Nazir, who hit 9 sixes in three matches in the 2007 World Cup. This time, Fakhar Zaman has surpassed Nazir-Shafiq’s record by a significant margin.
So, Fakhar Zaman’s 11 sixes have taken him to a record that was held for nearly three decades by Shahid Afridi and have given him another record of the most sixes in a World Cup by a Pakistani batsman.
